The first thing to say is dont store any piece of electronic or electrical retro gear in a celler or garage

basicaly retro gear uses tin and lead solder joints

in tempretures below ~13 deg c the tin in the solder will change state fasterthere is two types of tin as metal stateone is called white the other is gray state

if you store stuff below 13deg the white tin in the joints changes much faster to gray tinin extreame tempretures like below -10 deg the joints in the machines will turn to a mix of lead crystals and gray tin dust becouse gray tin has no cohearance

even if you store above 0 and below 13deg this change occurs and makes the solder jointscrack and become mechanicaly unstable leading to also a large resistance to the flow of current through the joints and this is a spiraling problem eventualy leading to 'state' failure's

and is the reason most ics need attention when you use an atari after storage... anywaybecouse there pins are exposed and badly protected 'the lightbulbs'

my tips are always to store ataris in the bottom drawer and other stuff in cupboards indoors and at room tempreture above 13deg point wrapped in a towel storage wraps are quite cool using a vacume cleaner you suck out the air from the wrap

frank b also notices if you wrap retroputer in some types of poly bags they seem to go yellow very fastim sure some of these ergo plastics {self rotting } seem to me to be a coulprite???he also notices black bin bags are better than white tip lid bin ones.....

anyway there is a tips on tin i hope you read more about gray and white tin lead solder joints problemsones its happened there is no way to change gray to white tin again easilybut im sure someone will give it a go

Wrapping them in plastic is indeed wrong strangly enough. There is a kind of weakening agent in it to makeit flexiable and soft. This agent leaves the plastic after a while and gets into anyother thing that is willingto bound chemical with it. Esp. if the enviroment is a little damped.

Also keep them out of the sunlight, this also doesn't do anything good for old plastic's.

If you store your equipment in Plastic containers (you know the 80l boxes with lids) be careful not to trap any moisture inside, especially if they are almost air-tight. Getting mould off plastic is almost impossible.

I would recommend you buy some Silica gel granules in paper pouches and pop them in the box with your electronics. Silica gel is a desiccant and will absorb any moisture which gets in.

And while it is better if your stuff doesn't yellow, if it does you can restore it to the original colour using a solution of high concentration Hydrogen Peroxide and TAED (Oxy) together with UV (either sunlight or even better a UV lamp). This technique was discovered last year and I've used it several times with great results. Search the forums for the precise details.

If you are storing Atari games in cardboard boxes, do not stack them flat. They soon crush under their own weight, especially if they get even the slightest damp. Stack them side on as the boxes have much more rigidity. (As you can tell I didn't and now have a load of crushed boxes).

basicaly it is a three state metalliquid :silversolid :whitedust :gray

so it basicaly turns to dust slowly when you store it under 13deg

this is was and will always be a problem in places like russia and poland etcwhere the church has to be kept warm otherwise when you play the organ all the pipes explode as powder and im sure they will replace each pipe every so often

i also like the way alex you state that the method to whiten plastic was discovered last year

this is total rubbish i first published this method in 2003 in this very forum

its well documented online im sure if you hunt the forum for my early posts i mentioned it several times and it was well discussed by myself and others for 6 years before someone staked there claim to the method and further perfected it

so if anything i discovered it in 2003 and i found it from a texas instuments book from the library in i think around 1990the method used to whiten there calculators/till's in banks and other offices

reading into lead it also exhibits a similar state changehowever it hardens to crystals then becomes powder at -56deg for prolonged periods both metals will hyperoxidise when in gray state so will both go white as soon as the temp rises againso far there is no solution perhaps the same chemists that nicked my idea and published it in a fancy site and gave no credits ATALL can turn there hand to this ongoing problem and less of the go white and more make it work pholosophie can be followed...

you can have a shinny white case for 5 years max till re treatmentmeanwhile the solders fall appart and the internal guts blow upsounds a bit like a dried out alchoholic to me

i like my yellow case till i dont

when its brown ill dye it .....

i would prefer matt black less reflections less noise better solders is the way for sure

if you have the time when your bleaching the case best resolder every joint in the machine using silver smd solder bar and flux spray

for sure!!!! esp if you live north of 55"

if i dye my case ill use sodium peroxide and bubble oxygen through ityou can buy a small tank from a local gas supplier for a 10er+ bottle chargethen there is no need for sun ray lamps you leave it alone and it will go white then stay white for upto 20 years